The invention relates to a unit support for a motor vehicle door which is designed, i.e. is configured and provided, for installation in the motor vehicle door, and which in the installed state forms at least one part of a door inner skin of the motor vehicle door.
Such a unit support serves to receive different functional components of a motor vehicle door, such as for example a window lifter, a door lock, a speaker and the like. It may, on the one hand, substantially form the complete door inner skin, so that for installation in a motor vehicle door it is fastened to the door outer skin thereof—directly or via a connecting and reinforcing frame extending between the door inner skin and the door outer skin. On the other hand, the unit support may also form just one component of the door inner skin, for example by the unit support being able to be positioned on a door inner skin provided with a large-surface cutout and in this connection covering said cutout.
At least one guide rail forms a substantial component of the motor vehicle window lifter premounted on the unit support, which extends (in a direction of adjustment) between a first and a second end portion and on which a drive element of the window lifter is movably guided on an adjusting path (extending in the direction of adjustment). Said optionally curved adjusting path is defined by guide surfaces of the guide rail, in which the drive element positively and movably engages along the adjusting path in the direction of adjustment. The drive element is, on the one hand, coupled to an adjusting drive of the window lifter, for example via a traction means in the form of a cable or via a lever mechanism, so that a drive force generated by the adjusting drive may be transmitted to the drive element and it is thereby moved along the guide rail, in order to raise or lower a window pane to be adjusted by means of the window lifter and attached to the drive element—according to the direction of movement. To this end, the drive element is also connected in the known manner to the window pane to be adjusted.
An important consideration with the arrangement of a motor vehicle window lifter on a unit support is ensuring a sufficiently long window travel, i.e. a sufficiently long adjusting path of the drive element which may be moved along the guide rail and which carries the window pane, so that the window pane may be moved to and fro (may be raised and lowered) between a position which is as fully open as possible and a closed position in the associated window opening of a motor vehicle. This has to be achieved in a motor vehicle door with the restriction that usually only limited space is available for the guide rails of a window lifter, so that the length thereof in the direction of adjustment of the associated drive element and/or the window pane attached thereto may not be freely selected to maximize the window travel and that, moreover, such an installation of the unit support is possible in a motor vehicle door by said unit support, in the installed state, bearing—via a seal—in a moisture-tight manner against the door bodywork. The unit support, therefore, as a component of the door inner skin at the same time forms part of the wet/dry space partition of a motor vehicle door, which serves to separate the dry space located in front of the surface of the door inner skin on the vehicle interior side, from the wet space located behind the surface of the door inner skin on the exterior side.
Provided that the motor vehicle window lifter is a traction means window lifter, in which a flexible traction means is guided along the at least one guide rail, in order to raise or lower a drive element carrying the window pane to be adjusted and which is longitudinally movably in engagement with the guide rail and connected to the traction means, and on the guide rail in the direction of adjustment, deflection elements, in particular in the form of deflection rollers are therefore typically arranged on the unit support in the region of the guide rail, by means of which the flexible traction means is deflected such that a portion of the flexible traction means extends along the corresponding guide rail, the drive element associated with the guide rail being fastened to said portion of the flexible traction means. Considerable forces, which have to be absorbed, may act on the deflection elements and thus on the points at which the deflection elements are arranged on the unit support or a component connected thereto, such as for example a guide rail, during operation of the motor vehicle window lifter.